From the start of his career with James City County in 1986, Tom Pennington worked toward completing a project that would end up saving the county more than $1 million in annual costs.
Pennington was responsible for working out an agreement that allowed the county to purchase fiber-optic cables to link all county buildings, offices and schools on a single network. The link is like a string of Christmas lights, Pennington said, with branches running off to each building, providing Internet, telephone and data connections.
“We basically built a phone company,” said Pennington, who retired from the county last fall as director of Information Resources Management, which is responsible for computers, technology, network systems, programming, web design and telecommunications.
The final piece of the fiber-optic network went into place two weeks after Pennington retired from James City County.
“That was a really exciting ending, I think. It was the right time,” Pennington said.
From the outset of his career with the county, Pennington set a goal for creating the fiber-optic network because he knew it would provide an easy connection to all the county’s information and communications, as well as save money. In 1987, discussions began about purchasing and implementing the network; about 10 years were consumed by planning, finding funding and sending out a proposal to solicit companies to offer up the cable. About 20 years were spent acquiring and installing the cable.
Though Pennington spent his career working on the project, the county hired him to be responsible for data processing, which he had done in his previous job with the U.S. Coast Guard.
As the county transitioned into using computers to complete more tasks, Pennington helped maintain the county’s system that tracked income and expenses. He also helped to create a program to track permits, payments and inspections. In 1986 and 1987, the county transitioned into using personal computers, which were called microcomputers at the time. Pennington worked to build 100 computers for county staff at one-third to one-half the cost of purchasing the computers.
Essentially, the county was doing what Michael Dell was doing in his college dorm room, Pennington said.
On Oct. 17, 1987, the county purchased Microsoft Excel and changed the way it completed the annual budgeting process by eliminating paper waste and streamlining the process. It was not until the mid-1990s when the county connected to Internet for the first time.
The transition of digital equipment caused Pennington’s role to continually change and expand as new technologies were introduced. Once the Internet came into play, web design fell into Pennington’s department.
Today, the information resources department includes more than 20 workers in various fields relating to data management and communications.
In looking back on his career with the county after his retirement, Pennington said he enjoyed working with many wonderful people and was proud of the number of projects he was able to participate in and complete.
“The thing I feel happiest with is the fact that we were able to attract a good team and retain them,” he said. “The people are the thing I will miss most.”
Pennington said the “honeymoon period” never ended for him throughout his years with county.
“I never would have told you, ‘Yes, I’ll be there for 28 years.’” Pennington said, but the county administration, employees and Boards of Supervisors showed genuine interest in the community. “All these people wanted to do well for their constituents.”
In the face of ever-changing technology, Pennington said he decided 2013 was the right year to retire, and to make way for a “fresh view” on the county’s information resources management department.
Pennington said it’s difficult to look to the future and know how technology will change even a few years down the line, but he thinks big competition the technology industry will face will be the interaction between humans and machines and “the competition will be how can they work together for a common good.”
As computers continue to have “brain ware” that can replace a person’s function, that replacement and interaction between people and computers will need to be accommodated.
With his James City County technology-centric career ended, Pennington is focused on picking up a hobby he always wanted: music. He’s been taking singing lessons for eight years and recently began learning to play piano.
Pennington also hopes to spent more time with his two children and three grandchildren, all of whom live in the Washington, D.C. area.
